Bait clickers or alerts are commonly employed on all types of fishing reels. Without a warning from the bait clicker, a user of a reel with a light drag setting might not otherwise be aware that the line is being drawn out either by a fish or because the bait is snagged. This is particularly a problem with today's smoothly and quietly operating reels.
It is know to provide mechanical clickers or alerts with elements that bear against a gear or the like that is rotated as the line is drawn from the reel or retrieved Because such structures depend upon rotation of the reel's drive train to produce the motion necessary to generate a clicking noise, such structures require that any anti-reverse mechanism be in a disengaged position for the clicker to operate.
Another significant drawback of the prior art mechanical bait alerts is the large number of mechanical parts which must be included in the structure to form the bait alert. The large number of parts not only increases assembly time and cost, but increases the chance of mechanical failure of the bait alert or the reel if one of the mechanical parts fails.
Yet another drawback of these prior art structures is that they generally can only produce audible warnings. Thus, such devices are unsuitable for the hearing impaired.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more problems discussed above in a novel and simple manner.